Shariff's penalty earns Stratford Town a point at Banbury

NABIL Shariff's 74th-minute penalty earned Stratford Town a 1-1 draw against Banbury United at the Banbury Plant Hire Community Stadium on Monday, writes Bryan Hale.

The Puritans took the lead in a generally undistinguished bank holiday encounter, but in a much-improved second half display, Stratford hit back from the spot to salvage a point.

Darren Byfield again made three changes to Stratford’s starting line-up with Wilson Carvalho, Claudio Dias and Jordan Williams making way for Edwin Ahenkorah, Chris Cox and Brad Maslen-Jones.

Both teams took time to settle, and when Banbury went ahead after 15 largely forgettable minutes, it was from a goal out of nothing.

Stratford carelessly lost possession some 25 yards out and the ball was picked up by Greg Kaziboni who tried his luck with a low drive which beat Nathan Vaughan’s despairing dive to his left to nestle in the bottom corner of the net.

As Stratford struggled to make an impact, Banbury went close to going 2-0 up on the half-hour mark when skipper Charlie Wise’s header from Ravi Shamsi’s right-wing corner was tipped onto the bar by Vaughan, with the ball deflecting behind for another corner which was eventually cleared away.

Stratford were then gifted a promising opportunity thanks to a mistake by Jordy Ngathe, but when Mike Taylor netted from Cox’s cross, his celebrations were cut short by the offside flag.

And the first half ended with Banbury on top and Shamsi hitting a well-struck effort straight at Vaughan from the edge of the penalty area.

With Stratford needing to get back into the game, Darren Byfield made a double substitution ten minutes into the second half, bringing on Carvalho and Dias for Cox and Maslen-Jones and changing the previous 4-3-1-2 formation to a more conventional 3-5-2.

Almost immediately though it was Banbury who again nearly doubled their lead with Vaughan spectacularly tipping over a header from Lewis Gabbidon.

But at last Stratford were looking more of a threat, and after Carvalho shot narrowly wide they drew level when Shariff was tripped in the penalty area and got up to slam the spot-kick past Banbury keeper James Goff.